Friday, June 30, 2017

I'm a wee bit addicted to these little square stickers from Jillibean Soup. They are actually part of the Day2Day planner line, so they fit perfectly in the day squares of the monthly calendar. Talk about adding some fun color, pattern, and motivation to your planner! But, gah, look how adorable they are on cards, too!

I accented each one with some embellishments, from both the Day2Day line and from the Bowl of Dreams collection: the tab sticker, puffy hearts and flowers ...

... wood veneer cameras and puffy feather stickers.

I love the girly combination of patterns and colors, too, which came together by putting together papers from the Bowl of Dreams and Chit Chat Chowder collections.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

This is one of the simplest cards I've ever made, and I love it! I wish you could have seen all the patterns and layers I messed around with before taking them all off and going with this simple white background. It felt like a breath of fresh air! Sometimes less really is more!

Monday, June 26, 2017

The clock is ticking on Reverse Confetti's June Sketch For You To Try (SFYTT). We'd love to have you play along for a chance to win a Reverse Confetti gift certificate! Full rules and details, as well as the link-up are posted HERE on the Reverse Confetti blog. The contest closes Thursday, June 29 at noon CT.

I know most graduations are past now, but I'll share these next two cards anyway. The yellow piece with the arrows is one of the Bite Size Bits (3x4 designs) from the Bowl of Dreams collection.

I added the graduation cap die-cut (from Taylored Expressions) and then a bunch of phrase stickers that are actually from Jillibean Soup's Day2Day planner product line. The stickers are clear, so I first adhered them to white card stock so they'd stand out better.

Last touch was to add some various wood veneers. Also, lots of stitched rectangle die-cuts for layers--must have dies for cardmakers, IMO!

This next card began with the orange diagonal striped Hardy Hodgepodge Bite Size Bits. The design includes the white rectangle with the gray outline at the bottom, but says "the details documented." I adhered letters that I cut out of another pattern (Bit of Letters) to spell out "grad."

Another graduation cap die-cut and more wood veneers. (And more stitched rectangles!)

And finished the top with a Hardy Hodgepodge Pea Pod Parts arrow, some stickers and twine.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Hi there, I'm over on the Queen & Co. blog today with two ideas for using up all the little bits and pieces that are left over from the diecuts in the Pretty Presents Kit.
I'm talking specifically about the circles and half-circles from the large present and the diagonal stripe cut-outs from the medium presents.

For this card, I first arranged a large grouping of colorful gifts along the bottom. At the top, I made a banner out of half-circle pieces leftover from the largest gift diecuts. Adorable little bow toppings help to string together the banner pieces.

Next, I was looking at that pile of pieces left over from the diagonal stripe package and thought why not build a pretty pattern out of them? For interest, I arranged them facing different directions and at different heights.

I added a simple stamped sentiment across the grouping, and finished with some colorful circles, also leftover cut-outs from the diecuts, this time the large polka dot present die. Such a simple design, but colorful and fun! Hard to believe it, but there are 10 different patterns included in this one card design!

My mother often gives me a hard time for not sending her enough pictures of my kids, so I decided to send her not just pictures, but also a glimpse into their world right now using some of those prompts from Traveler's Journal: Currently. One thing led to another, and I realized that I would like something similar. I ended up making a whole Traveler's Journal with quarterly Q&A pages for each of my kids. Here's an example:

On the left side, I have a current photo, along with ten prompts, and on the right, those prompts are filled out based on my youngest son. I stamped the page with images from Boho Rounds in spring colors, then stamped similar pages for each season.

Summer

Fall

Winter

Since all three kids will appear in this one journal, I wanted to divide the journal into three sections.

You can see all three in this photo, as well as the Boho Rounds stamping I did on the cover.

I pre-stamped all the pages, but didn't want to glue down the photo frames yet, since I'll be adding the photos over the next year. I decided to add a laminated dashboard with an envelope to store all the extra frames and labels.

Dashboards are basically like wraps, either decorative or functional, that protect your traveler's journals, as well as give you a place to stick and/or store things. I like to laminate them because it makes the whole notebook a little more sturdy and durable.

To make the dashboard, I cut two pieces of Aqua Mist Stripe paper at 4.5" square, then placed them into a laminating pouch with about a half-inch gap in between.